azcentral.com main | entertainment | classifieds | pets

traveling for a marathon

Posted June 10th, 2008 by speechmommy2004

fitness

Anyone ever travel out of town for a race? I am running the Marine Corps marathon on October and it is in DC. I am a bit worried about the time change and how I will feel running. I keep hearing that I should go out at least 3 days earlier to acclimate to the change but I have a conference in town that conflicts with that. Has anyone actually done this and had/not had problems? Any suggestions are appreciated.

I've certainly not run a

On June 10th, 2008 flyerg says:

I've certainly not run a marathon... I can hardly walk fast anymore. :o) But I can tell you the difference between the climate here and DC since I used to live there. The people who are telling you to go early have good reason - the heat there is much more exhausting than here because of the humidity. Good luck.

sure, fine, whatever

My aunt runs in a lot of

On June 11th, 2008 phoenixgrlkim1 says:

My aunt runs in a lot of marathons. About a year or two ago she went to Prescott to run (she lives in Tucson) and she said the altitude difference was extremely hard on her. That would be my first concern over being tired because of a time difference. DC weather is obviously a lot different then our dry, hot climate here. You might want to research how to adapt quicker to that. I heard if you take vitamin B it helps with time change but the few times I have traveled back east my body never really had a hard time adjusting to the change.

"It's not to late to become who you've always wanted to be..."

DC is actually quite cool by

On June 11th, 2008 mouse_tales says:

DC is actually quite cool by October. I was ther for about a month last year. It can be hilly...not obviously hilly...only when you look behind you do you notice that it's hilly.

My goal in the next year is to start travelling to do some races.

3 days to acclimate to the time-change would be a good thing.

I would do both research on the elevation of the area you'll be running as well as the elevation of the course. They usually post both on the race website because it is a very common for folks to travel, especially during race season (Fall for us).

You might find some helpful information in one of the blogs featured on Runner's World website.
http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/blogs/0,,s6-243-364-0-0,00.html?cm_re=HP...

Mouse_tales is a discussion leader in the East Valley for arizonamoms.com. She spends most of her days juggling her duties as a (bio & step) mom, wife, and business owner. Her three little kittens range in age from 5 to 13.

Thank you so much for that.

On June 11th, 2008 speechmommy2004 says:

Thank you so much for that. I was so focused on the time change I never considered the weather. I live in Ahwatukee so all I get is hills. If you really want to start traveling for races Disneyland does a half marathon every labor day and it is an absolute blast. It is hard to set a PR for this course because it is really crowded, but it is truly so much fun. You run thru both parks and then over to anaheim stadium. People dress up and the characters are all along the course (the disney firemen too) It is a fun one to try and not too serious so it might be a good 1st to travel for. No time change either. Thanks again for the link and happy running.

Oh, I will have to share

On June 11th, 2008 mouse_tales says:

Oh, I will have to share that one with the hubby. I have seen an ad for it a few times.

He was teasing me because I wanted to do to San Antonio 1/2 that runs along the border. You get burritos and beer at the end! It just sounded so funny! He told me that I could run outside our home for 13.1 miles and he'd have a beer & burrito waiting for me, if that's what I wanted.

Yeah, you just can't explain things like to to a non-runner :-)